Chapter Fourteen

I don't want to jump down, but we don't have to. The cellar door isn't locked here.

It opens, like the hinges are brand new and the eerie light filtering down shows Dylan, sitting in the dirt, weaving like he's drunk.

I don't waste time and Jonas doesn't hesitate to help me.

I've never been in the cellar in the living world. I don't know what's different about this version of it. But I do know that Dylan shouldn't be here and I am not going to let him stay any longer than I have to.

I start to drag him back up the steps, but Jonas pauses. "What is that?"

In the dirt, in a pile of ash, a heart glows bright. Molten beneath the cracked and brittle crust of burned muscle.

"That is Julia's; don't touch it."

He looks up at me, wide eyed, but he nods, and follows me back up.

The floor in the foyer is fixed when we come back around and as if seeing the fully intact floor wakes him up, Dylan starts to struggle.

Cursing under his breath, Jonas does his best to manage him and I just lead the way.

Julia waits for us, the door to the bedroom open again.

When we reach the bedroom, Jonas turns to the portal back to the human world as if it tugs at him the same way that his entrance to hell did.

He loosens his grip and Dylan turns.

Dylan spits and Jonas shoves him, snatching his hand back before Dylan tries to bite him. "Jesus Christ. What the hell is wrong with him?"

I get behind Dylan and push. He vanishes as soon as his hand flails through the frame and back into the living world.

I shiver and lean back into Julia whose hands have gone to my shoulders, stroking my skin. "I think we just saw the real Dylan. He spent the last six months lying to me. I guess coming to hell made lying anymore impossible."

I push Jonas through and he, too, disappears, but I don't let Julia send me through first.

"We go together." I am not about to let something happen to trap her here.

The floor feels more solid and I shiver when we're finally through.

Before I do anything else, I touch the outside of the frame, letting it burn me. "Fracta."

The wood splinters where my fingers touched it and the entrance to hell vanishes as easily as the guys did.

Behind where it was, the paneling of the wall is charred and crackled.

"You still need to deal with him," she says

I know. And I hate that it came to this.

Hurrying down the stairs, I try to think of what I'm going to say.

Now that he's out of hell, Dylan has to be better, right?

I catch sight of him as he stalks out the door. I'll go after him in a minute. I need to check on Jonas first.

He's already upright, blinking and weaving on his feet. "Is this the real world?"

"Yeah, we're back." I hold his shoulder to steady him. "Are you okay?"

"He's soul weary," Julia says. "His soul has done a lot today."

Jonas doesn't seem to hear her anymore. "I think so?"

"Are you going to be okay while I go deal with Dylan?"

"Are you sure you want to do that alone?"

"No. I don't want to do it at all, but… I have to." I brush his hair out of his face… he looks more like a little kid than any guy as tall as him has the right to. "When I'm done with him, I'll come back and we can make you forget all about hell."

He nods and glances toward Julia. "What about her?"

She still looks like her terrifying self and I imagine she will haunt his dreams.

"He'll see me and other ghosts for a while. When you've been to the other side, it lingers with you… that can't be helped."

"We'll figure that out later."

"No!"

I turn sharply to Julia but she's not arguing about when Jonas and I talk. She sinks through the floor and the house shakes… with panic.

There's only one thing below us that could induce that terror.

I run out the door and by the time I round the corner, Dylan has already started to hack at the cellar door.

I don't know where he found the axe and I don't care.

I tackle him to the ground and it goes flying.

"I'm going to kill her. And then, I'm going to kill you."

He grabs handfuls of dirt, shoving them at me as he throws me off him. But I grab the axe before he can and I hold it tight.

I'm not going to swing it at him, but I'm not going to let him take it away from me either.

I can't knock him out without touching him and I don't trust any of the other spells I've dabbled with to deal with this problem.

My education is lacking… I just never thought a friend would want me dead.

"Dylan, stop it." Jonas sags against the corner of the house, holding himself up. He looks like he's run a marathon.

"Don't fucking start with me." He points at Jonas and then his eyes narrow. "You know what… I'll kill you too."

"Listen," I say, still holding the axe between us. "You went through a lot tonight. I know that you're probably confused?—"

"I'm not confused. My eyes are wide open." He smiles at me and my skin crawls. "I know what I have to do."

Before I can even begin to guess what he means by that, he throws himself sideways, crashing through the splintered cellar door.

"Crap." I throw the axe away and run after him.

But Dylan hasn't gotten far.

I would bet he has only managed to stand up, not take a step.

Julia floats in the air between him and her heart. Her hair and skirt billow around her, fading to nothing at the edges.

Her eyes are massive black voids, her mouth more akin to something you would see in the deepest ocean.

She is a creature of the hell we just escaped and Dylan stares up at her, finally terrified.

He swallows and I see him look down at her heart. Blood drips from his arm, sizzling when it hits the ground.

I don't think he realizes how much danger he's in.

Wood from the floor joists creak and groan and a hundred splinters burst from it, flying into his skin, peppering him like bullets.

But that isn't what is going to kill him.

"You aren't going to want to watch this," I tell Jonas, but he stays, sitting on the top step of the cellar, like it's a play.

Dylan's arm moves and he stares at it, brows pinched.

"How…" Jonas asks.

"Julia can interact with her house… her house is in him and so now, he is her puppet."

He screams when she wrenches that arm back, and I wince as I hear the bone snap.

"She was going to let you live." Julia says. "I won't."

"What did she say?" Jonas leans forward, eyes wide.

"She's going to kill him." I glance back at him. "Like I said, you might not want to be here."

"I mean… I've already watched three people get swallowed up by hell tonight. What's a fourth?"

He leans forward, elbows on his knees and makes an ugly sound as Dylan's wrist rotates completely around.

His legs give out, but Dylan doesn't drop to the ground. Suspended by the wood embedded in him, he floats in front of her.

I almost tell her not to torture him. But I remember what he had planned to do to me in hell and I wonder if he hasn't already done the same in the living world… if he won't do it to someone else if I ask her to spare him.

Maybe I'll join Julia when I die and we'll descend to wrath together.

Bit by bit, Julia breaks him like a doll in the hands of a sadistic child.

He is a crumpled and crying mess by the time she is done.

"Please," he whimpers.

But Julia shakes her head. "There is no mercy in you. You'll get none from me. Go back to hell where you belong."

His scream is bloodcurdling this time, but it cuts off when his head snaps cleanly to the side.

I look out into the night sky.

Sound might not have carried in hell, but these would have. I have to hope no one is out for a midnight stroll to have heard him.